Because safety matters…

The UAE has accomplished an enormous and unprecedented achievement by ranking highest in the world in compliance with international aviation safety standards after intensive audit through the International Civil Aviation Organisation (ICAO)’s Universal Safety Oversight Audit Programme. The UAE scored a success rate of 98.86 per cent, which is the highest rate in history given by ICAO.

Sheikh Ahmed bin Saeed Al Maktoum, President of the Department of Civil Aviation Authority, Chairman and Chief Executive of Emirates Airline and Group, welcomed the significant achievement of the UAE represented by the General Civil Aviation Authority (GCAA) of being rated as the top country in the world in compliance with international aviation safety standards.

“This global recognition comes as a result of persistent efforts for many years in order to reach this high position that the country deserves,” he said.

By 1891 management accountability for safe operations was identified as a necessary precept to such an extent that the original Du Pont plant design included a requirement for the Director’s house, in which Du Pont himself, his wife and seven children lived, to be constructed within the plant precinct, a powerful incentive indeed to gain an understanding of accident causation.

Facing potential shortages of airline pilots and dramatic advances in automation, industry and government researchers have begun the most serious look yet at the idea of enabling jetliners to be flown by a single pilot.

All large commercial jets for passenger and cargo service world-wide now fly with at least two pilots in the cockpit. A new study by the National Aeronautics and Space Administration and Rockwell Collins Inc. will focus on the provocative idea that co-pilots could remain on the ground, remotely assisting solo aviators on the flight deck during the busiest parts of flights, said John Borghese, Rockwell’s vice president of its Advanced Technology Center.

Whether the concept will eventually come to fruition depends on political viability and social acceptability as well as technical feasibility. The researchers aren’t endorsing the idea or devising specific plans for single-pilot operation of large commercial jets. Rather, they seek to analyze changes in technology and operations that could make the concept feasible in the future-even if that means as far off as 2030.

NEW DELHI: At least 71 pilots were grounded this year for various reasons, including being found tipsy, with about half of them belonging to no-frill carriers SpiceJet and IndiGo, Rajya Sabha was informed on Tuesday.

19 pilots of SpiceJet and 16 of IndiGo were grounded by aviation regulator DGCA on two counts — testing positive in pre-flight breathalyser tests and being responsible for some incidents involving flight operation.

The grounded pilot count for other airlines due to the same reasons was 11 each for Air India and Jet Airways, two each for Air India Charters and Alliance Air and one each for GoAir and JetLite.

Of the total 71 pilots grounded, a total of 24 were punished for being found positive for breathalyser tests, 39 for incidents and eight for lapsed pilot licence, according to the data given by civil aviation minister Ashok Gajapathi Raju in reply to a written question..

A new app designed to enhance flight safety has been introduced by Florida-based Levil Technology, a designer of aviation instrumentation, among other things. The app is called GAARD. Levil describes it as a prototype application designed to enhance aviation safety. Pilots can use this application to participate in the Aviation Safety Information Analysis and Sharing (ASIAS) GA Demonstration Project taking place in Phoenix, AZ.

The app allows users to graph your aircraft performance during flight including roll, pitch, and heading. It will also show an aircraft’s flight track on a map. Established in March, the FAA’s year-long Aviation Safety Information Analysis and Sharing (ASIAS) program for the general aviation (GA) community is collecting data from GA pilots within 40 nautical miles of Phoenix Sky Harbor International Airport on a voluntary basis.

The FAA and industry are working together through the General Aviation Joint Steering Committee (GAJSC) to use data to identify risk, pinpoint trends through root cause analysis, and develop safety strategies. The demonstration project is the next step towards expanding ASIAS, already successfully used in commercial aviation, to the GA community to help identify safety risks and emerging threats. The project will collect public sector and proprietary data which will be protected. The data will not be accessed or used for FAA enforcement. The project will also explore potential new voluntary information sources such as digital flight data, pilot safety reports, manufacturer reports, and information voluntarily provided from personal electronic devices.

Contemporary aviation operators have access to information that their predecessors did not.Data streams such as those from the line operations safety audit (LOSA), aviation safety action program (ASAP), flight operational quality assurance (FOQA)/flight data monitoring (FDM), and U.S. National Aeronautics and Space Administration Aviation Safety Reporting System (ASRS) allow many errors in different phases of flight to be carefully scrutinized, categorized and analyzed. Many organizations have a data collection and analysis system to document these anomalies. A great deal of information on the various types of errors and where they occur is now well known and documented. One conclusion emerging from this wealth of information is the importance of effective flight path monitoring (EFPM) in a safe operation. Monitoring is something that flight crews must use to help them identify, prevent and mitigate events that may impact safety margins.

Participants at the first Human Factors Aviation Industry Roundtable meeting in 2012 were concerned that while the aviation accident/incident rates are at their historically lowest levels, too many events (for example, the crash of Colgan Air Flight 34073) involved ineffective monitoring as a factor. The result of the meeting was the creation of the Active Pilot Monitoring Working Group (WG), tasked with studying the issue and creating practical guidelines intended for use by aviation managers to improve the effectiveness of monitoring. The result of this effort is this “Practical Guide for Improving Flight Path Monitoring.”

Expectation bias, fueled by familiar precursors to a “line up and wait” clearance, led this B737 flight crew to enter the runway prematurely. We were holding short of Runway 06L and takeoffs and landings were being conducted on the runway. The Captain had mentioned that he had a commute to catch at [our destination] and we were issued a wheels up time. The aircraft ahead in the run-up area was cleared for takeoff. I glanced right, saw the next arrival for the runway and thought we might be able to get out before him if we got clearance right now. The Captain released the parking brake to inch forward to the Hold Short line since the aircraft ahead had departed. As we were rolling, the Tower Controller issued instructions to amend our departure. I read them back and then focused my attention on the automation to reset the departure….

As I looked back outside the aircraft, I saw that we were lining up on the runway. As my focus had been inside the airplane, I did not immediately perceive any error. I then tried to think back whether we had been cleared to line up. As we lined up, ATC instructed another aircraft to go-around. It then clicked that we had never been cleared to line up and wait. The Captain then also realized his error. Some factors included how ATC worded the departure amendment in a way that sounded like the precursor to a line up and wait or takeoff clearance. Another was glancing at the next arrival. Since our wheels up time had come, my mindset was that we were next and had enough room if we got clearance to takeoff right away. When ATC issued the departure amendment, the aircraft was already rolling forward as my head went down. I felt aircraft movement because we had been creeping forward, but did not realize how far we had gone before putting my head back up.